Undoing the Damage
by Animaltalker
Summary: Written for my friend Sugarkane's challenge Changing History, in which we were to rewrite a bit of Law & Order canon. I chose to rewrite the ending of the episode Damaged, in which Cathy Briscoe was killed.


Lennie watched as Detective Mallory followed his daughter Cathy across the square. He shook his head. He knew Mallory wouldn't be able to keep Cathy safe from a scumbag like Danny Jones. He needed to do something and he needed to do something fast. He hurried back into the Brooklyn courthouse as fast as his lanky legs would carry him, and found the first pay phone he could. Lennie fumbled through his pockets for change. "Damn, guess maybe I ought to carry a cell phone like Rey does."

Once he found enough change for what he had in mind he started placing calls.

"Potbelly?" he waited to make sure it was his old buddy on the line. "Yeah it's Lennie Briscoe, look I need a big favor. My kid Cathy got jammed up." Lennie started to explain the situation, when his friend interrupted him.

"Yeah, I heard all about it from the police grapevine," Potbelly told him.

"Oh, you did. Well I guess news travels fast. Look the guy she testified against; well he's out because of a hung jury. Sort of my fault, the defense dug up my background and muddied the waters with it, plus the prosecutor was a real pantywaist. Anyway, I'm afraid this guy's gonna come after my little girl," before Lennie could get much further Potbelly interrupted again.

"You want me to help you watch her back don't you?" he asked.

"Well, yeah that's kind of what I had in mind. I was thinking if I got you and Reds Carpenter and Sean Daugherty and a few more guys in on this, you could keep a watch on her for me, so this guy couldn't hurt her. It would just be until I can talk some sense into her. Get her to move in with me, or maybe even go visit with her Mom and sister down in Florida for a while. What do you think, John?" Lennie asked, almost pleading.

"No problem Lennie, I'm not about to let some lowlife hurt a former partner's little girl, especially not your Cathy, I can still remember how you used to go on and on about her. You'd think there wasn't another little girl in the world was ever as pretty or as smart as your Cathy. You just give me her address and the details on this drug dealer and I'll set it all up, don't worry about calling the other guys I'll handle that too," Potbelly promised.

When Lennie got off the phone with Potbelly he hesitated a moment then made another call.

"Mike? It's Lennie. You busy?" he inquired.

"Not very, why?" Mike asked in returned.

"I'd like to come over to talk about something that's real important, but I need to get back to work, I'm late as it is," Lennie answered.

"OK, well how about after you get off?" Mike suggested.

"Yeah, I'll pick up some take out OK?" Lennie offered.

"Sounds great," Mike replied, truly anxious to see his old partner and wondering what he wanted to talk about.

Lennie went back to work, but found it hard to concentrate, aside from being worried about Cathy; the case he and Rey were working was a real stomach churner. A teacher had gotten caught in crossfire between an angry teenage girl and some high school boys, who thought raping her mentally retarded older sister would be cool. Lennie found himself wishing the girl had been a much better shot, so the high school Lotharios wouldn't be a threat in that manner any more.

Part way through the afternoon Potbelly called to tell Lennie that he and a number of Lennie's old buddies had set up surveillance on Cathy's place and on Danny Jones. Lennie began breathing easier.

After work he picked up Chinese take out, all of Mike's favorites and headed to Logan's place. He found himself nervous, wondering whether Mike would be upset with his request; it was after all a strange one. As they ate, he filled Mike in on the trouble Cathy had gotten herself into and on her mood, just as he was about to make his request of Mike, he beat him to it.

"Let me guess. You want me to get close to Cathy. Lift her spirits, help her get out of this funk she's in, and in the mean time keep her safe from Danny Jones. Oh, and by the way, if I so much as put a real move on her, you'll make me sorry I was ever born. Did I miss anything, partner?" Logan asked.

Lennie choked on the Chinese food he was in the middle of wolfing down, and Mike had to slap him on the back.

"Damn it, Mikey! When did you get so smart?" Lennie asked in a wheeze.

"Sometime between 1992 and 1995, partner," Mike said with a grin, and then very ill advisedly messed up Lennie's hair.

"Ick, what is this?" Mike asked, looking at his hand.

"VO5, can't find brillcream anymore," Lennie replied with an equally large grin, and for a moment they were like two overgrown schoolboys relishing a prank.

After the moment passed, Mike asked, "So any idea how I, uh get close to your daughter?"

"Not a clue, besides you're the Romeo."

"Yeah, but didn't we just establish that you don't want her to be my Juliet? Besides I'm a bit old for her don't you think?"

Lennie nodded vigorously.

"Well, I'll play it by ear and we'll see what happens, but I promise you, I'll keep her safe."

Try as he could, Lennie couldn't leave things to his former partners, so he decided to go see Cathy, to try to talk some sense into her.

"Cathy, be reasonable," Lennie cajoled.

"Reasonable, Daddy! Moving to Florida with Mom is not reasonable!" she shouted.

"I didn't suggest moving to Florida, just going there for a visit, until there's a new trial," Lennie said trying to remain calm.

"Dad, I can't live with her for that long. She'll drive my stark raving crazy. Why do you think I moved back to New York as soon as I could?" Cathy asked sincerely.

"I guess I never realized that you and your Mom didn't get along very well." Lennie said somewhat surprised.

"Mom and I fight a lot, and she always ends up at some point saying I'm just like you. She thinks it's a big insult," Cathy said with a shy smile as she looked up at her Dad. He grinned back at her.

"OK, no Florida, what about Long Island with your Uncle Max?" Lennie suggested, even though he loathed his ex-brother-in-law.

"Can we just forget Mom's side of the family?" Cathy requested.

"Well, just who do you think you're going to stay with on my side of the family? Your grandmother?" Lennie asked.

"Well, grandma would let me and I sure love being with her, but no. I wouldn't put her in danger for love or money and you know that!" Cathy answered a bit peeved at her Dad.

"Yes, I know, but I'm still waiting. Who on my side of the family are you planning to stay with?"

Cathy thought for a while, and finally smiled. "Kenny, that's who.

"Kenny, he's just a kid!" Lennie roared.

"He's a cop in the NYPD just like you are," Cathy countered.

"You can't go live with your cousin," Lennie declared.

"Why not?" Cathy asked.

"Because he's"- Lennie floundered, and then he thought of something, "He's probably got a girlfriend living with him."

"Kenny?" Cathy said and then lost the battle with the laughter she was trying to suppress.

"Well, yeah, he's what 29 and he just got a promotion, you know."

"First, he's a kid, now he's a big shot with a live-in girlfriend. Dad, make up your mind."

"Why won't you just come live with me, so I'll know you're safe?" he pleaded.

"Dad, we're too much alike. We'd drive each other crazy."

"I'll make you tuna fish sandwiches with chopped up pickles, just the way you like."

"Oh Daddy, don't. Don't put a guilt trip on me. Besides." Cathy whined.

"Besides what?" Lennie asked.

"There's this guy in my neighborhood. His name is Mike. He's just started showing up at the bodega and the coffee shop. He's really cute and he's interesting to talk to, and for the first time in a long time I feel like things are OK, you know. So, I don't want to leave the neighborhood and blow seeing this guy again, OK?" she said in that voice that said 'Daddy please' without her having to say the words.

"OK, on two conditions," Lennie said.

"What conditions?" Cathy asked.

"One I get to be worried sick about your safety, and two before you leave today you hug the stuffings out of me," he said and managed a smile.

"OK, Dad. You know, I thought all this stuff with the drug arrest was going to be the worst thing that ever happened to me, but maybe in the long run it won't be. For the first time in a long time, I'm beginning to feel like I have my Daddy back. You see, I look out my apartment window, and I always see some middle age man who looks vaguely familiar to me watching my apartment. At first I was frightened, but then one time I saw it was John Podbielski, and I realized what was going on. You've got your old cop buddies watching over me, keeping me safe. Don't you?" she asked and Lennie meekly nodded his head and she shook hers.

"After you and Mom divorced, she played a lot of head games on me and Julia with the help of that shrink who kept telling us what a bad father you were. I guess after a time, we believed it. It was easier for Julia to believe those things, because she didn't have as many memories of you as I did. I had memories of a wonderful father that conflicted with what Mom and the shrink kept telling me. My memories are of a Daddy who loved me and protected me. You're trying to be that Daddy again aren't you?" she asked and she turned her blue eyes up to search his.

"Yes baby, that's what I'm trying to do," Lennie answered, in a voice that threatened to crack, with eyes that brimmed with tears.

Cathy reached her arms around him and hugged him tightly. She laid her head on his shoulder, and he moved his arms to encircle her. He kissed her hair as he had when she was a little girl. Lennie started to cry. He couldn't help himself. He'd longed to have his daughter in his arms again for so long. She couldn't know how many cracks in his broken heart she had just healed with so simple a gesture.

"Oh Daddy, please don't cry," she begged him.

"Just tears of happiness, baby. I've wanted to hold you like this for so long. It's just that, for a long time, I've felt like I hadn't the right. I've screwed up your life so bad. I didn't mean to baby. I always meant to do right by you and Julia. I just wasn't any good at being a husband or a father. Maybe if my old man had been a better role model, maybe then I'd have had some idea how to do it. Then again, my brother had the same role model and he figured it out. Hell, only thing I ever knew how to do even half way good was be a cop. Maybe there's just something wrong with me."

"Shush Daddy, I don't think there's anything wrong with you," she paused for a moment, thinking, "or me for that matter, that a little love and forgiveness won't fix," Cathy said, she led her Dad over to the couch in her apartment to sit and talk.

A week or so later

Lennie had just fallen sleep when he got a call. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Lennie, it's Reds. That bastard Jones tried to get Cathy."

"What happened?" Lennie asked instantly awake.

"I guess he was getting pretty desperate with the new trial coming up, so he chanced taking a shot at her as she was coming home from a date with that new fellow she's been dating," Reds reported. Lennie was pretty sure the new fellow was Mike Logan.

"Reds, what happened?" Lennie asked impatiently.

"Oh, yeah well Jones took a shot at them, the first shot missed and the fellow got her down and covered. Next shot hit him in the arm. By then I've called 911 and taken a couple a shots at Jones, I got him in the left thigh, the stomach and the right arm" Reds practically crowed.

"Good shooting, Reds. How are Cathy and her boyfriend?"

"They're fine. Paramedics took the boyfriend to Brooklyn General to treat the bullet wound. It didn't look too bad, just a flesh wound. Jones was taken there too. Then he'll be booked on the attempted murder." Reds reported.

"Where's Cathy?" Lennie asked.

"Oh, she went with her boyfriend. Think you might get a son-in-law out of the deal, Lennie." Reds said.

"Thanks for the update, Reds," Lennie said.

Lennie threw the covers off and prepared to go over to Brooklyn General to see how Mike was. He had just managed to keep his daughter from being killed by a drug dealer, now he had three choices either figure out how to make his daughter fall out of love with Mike Logan or kill Mike Logan or accept Mike Logan as a son-in-law. None of the options sounded particularly good to him, but at least Cathy was alive.


End file.
